Ruhollah Khomeini Quotes
Either we shake one another's hands in joy at he victory of Islam in the world, or all of us will turn to eternal life, and martyrdom. In both cases, victory and success are ours.
Khomeini, Ruhollah. "Message to the Nation: Acceptance of UN Resolution 598," 20 Jul. 1988. Sahifeh-ye Imam, vol. 21, The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works, 2001, p. 95.
Christian sentiments like this were common during The Crusades where God would cause Christianity to prevail. However, with the Reformation, the enlightenment, the industrial revolution, and modernity, most Christians became more tolerant of other religions and accepting of the fact that there are other religions, which while not valid, would co-exist with Christianity. Islam backward and left out of the forces that modernized Christian nations entered the 21st century with large numbers of Muslims who believe in the literal truth of this sura and its desirability and their personal duty to help make it happen.
These “benefits” as well as males getting 72 virgins are constantly told to young and impressionable Muslims, some of whom take it so literally that they become suicide bombers. They actually believe that blowing themselves up feels only like the sting of a mosquito. This sales pitch for suicide bombers and other martyrs is also effective because with the poor education, high unemployment, and few political and civil rights, most young Arab males have no other way of obtaining “honor, dignity, and respect.”
The Sunna and Hadith are Islamic Reverential Texts. The “final battle” is prophesised just as in the Christian Book of Revelations such a final battle between good and evil is predicted (Armageddon), and is believed to be in the future by some fundamentalist Christians. One difference however is that a small population of Christians believe this literally, while most Muslims believe in the great battle to come. However in this case, the battle is between the Muslims and the evil heretics—all others.
This is the pitch that has brought volunteers to the Al-Qaeda terrorist banner throughout the Muslim world. “Polytheists” refer to Christians who because of the concept of the Trinity are believed by Muslims to be breaking the Commandment to worship only one God. “Crusaders” refers to Christians. Christians and Jews are not the only religions who many Muslims regard as the enemy of Islam. In the final pitch the listener is given the choice between victory or martyrdom. The latter does not have quite the same meaning for the Muslim as for most of the rest of the world. A Muslim who dies fighting for Islam, the religion teaches, goes directly to Heaven bypassing all judgment. He gets the best treatment in heaven including the services of 72 virgins. The notion seems ludicrous to most of us today, but in the Crusader era, several Popes essentially claimed the same thing for Christians who died fighting for the faith in the Crusades—the virgins were only a modern Muslim thing.
Sayyid Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, also known in the Western world as Ayatollah Khomeini, was an Iranian political and religious leader. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which saw the overthrow of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the end of the 2,500-year-old Persian monarchy. Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country's Supreme Leader, a position created in the constitution of the Islamic Republic as the highest-ranking political and religious authority of the nation, which he held until his death. Most of his reign was taken up by the Iran–Iraq War of 1980–1988. He was succeeded by Ali Khamenei on 4 June 1989.
